4 out of 5

Label: 2K

Produced by: ?

With the Civilization games already quite large in scope from the get-go, the eventual move into space-faring 4x – done once in the 90s as spiritual sequel Alpha Centauri, then revitalized in the 2010’s AAA gaming space with Beyond Earth and its sequel, Rising Tide – it follows that we needed more expansive soundtracks. And with nearly every AAA going rather cinematic with their scores, the team of Geoff Knorr, Griffin Cohen, and Grant Kirkhope compose the tracks of Rising Tide to follow some cinematic threads of bombast, but swerve that fascinatingly with an interesting blend of orchestral and electronic ambience, and big swings that stay rooted to some very game-y sparkle (often courtesy of Grant Kirkhope), or themes that avoid the grand moments in favor of more subtle ones.

At 29 tracks and 2+ hours, the score can be pretty intimidating, but it helps to break it down how the game has: with suites dedicated to different progress paths, and evolutions from the primitive to the “modern” within those paths. …Or at least that’s my read, since I haven’t played the game. Regardless, the soundtrack definitely has three sections: The Abyss, The Old World, and the Young World. It’s interesting to think of these linearly, but that’s also one of the album’s soft spots: I don’t feel that these parts build on one another, and/or The Young World is arguably the weakest (or most generically dramatic) set of track, making drawing a story across the album a disappointing exercise.

But we don’t have to think of them linearly. Instead, the stories within each are very worthwhile.

The Abyss is the most interesting to me, with a generally colder sound, the alien-ness of space trickled in with electronics. It starts rather abstract, and then – in my imagined narrative – as the civilization becomes more daring, so does the music, finally surging with some triumphant closers.

The other two sections follow a similar progression, but tilted towards slightly different musical agendas. The Old World is a fittingly more “primal” sound, a bit more aggressive, and then smoothing out until, again, we get to some concluding grandeur.

And though I’ve described The Young World as rather generic by comparison – where we get into more typical AAA territory – that doesn’t detract from its surging, emotive nature, which is more flourished from the get go and leads us to bright, orchestral closers.

This is a massive collection of very affecting music; it’s interesting that it’s not too directly thematic, but after several spins, I think that’s a strength: it lets its patterns emerge a bit more slowly, and organically, which fits with a sense of discovery. It would be nice to trace some themes throughout the whole set, but splitting it into its three parts also arguably breaks up the 2+ hour listen effectively.